{"id":983,"date":"2026-06-01T16:09:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=983"},"modified":"2026-06-01T16:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:09:38","slug":"nyc-landlord-pleads-for-help-as-9-year-squatter-nightmare-costs-him-hundreds-of-thousands-in-unpaid-rent-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=983","title":{"rendered":"NYC landlord pleads for help as ‘9-year-squatter’ nightmare costs him hundreds of thousands in unpaid rent, fees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

EXCLUSIVE:\u00a0<\/strong>NEW YORK CITY \u2014 A Brooklyn landlord says he has been trapped in a nearly decade-long legal nightmare that has cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent and legal fees, while New York courts repeatedly delay resolution as his tenant continues living in the apartment without making direct rent payments to the landlord.<\/p>\n

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Thomas Diana, who owns a\u00a0small eight-unit building\u00a0in Park Slope, told Fox News Digital he has spent the last nine years trying to remove a woman who originally moved into one of his apartments as a live-in companion for an elderly, disabled tenant.<\/p>\n

Court records show the woman moved into the apartment in 2014 after responding to a Craigslist advertisement seeking a live-in companion for the tenant, who later died in 2016.<\/p>\n

What followed was nearly a decade of litigation spanning multiple courts and proceedings. After the elderly tenant\u2019s death, disputes arose over the woman\u2019s tenancy status, rent obligations and whether the apartment remained subject to New York rent-stabilization laws as Diana sought unpaid rent and possession of the apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has gone on for nine years. Nothing about this is justice,\u201d Diana told Fox News Digital. \u201cEvery time the case gets close to resolution, there\u2019s another delay, another lawyer change, another new story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diana says the tenant has changed lawyers at least eight times in the ongoing legal saga, which Diana refers to as a \u201c9-year squatter situation,\u201d although the case technically centers around a dispute over rent stabilization laws with the two sides disputing nearly every aspect of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt drained my daughter\u2019s\u00a0college\u00a0fund,\u201d Diana told Fox News Digital inside his home while wearing a now-outdated T-shirt that says, \u201cStuck with 8-year-squatter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re borrowing money to pay for college while this just keeps dragging on. It gets pretty stressful. People think eviction cases are like TV where it takes two weeks. In New York it can take years, and this one has turned into almost a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the tenant strongly dispute Diana\u2019s characterization of the case, and the tenant at one point sued Diana, claiming the apartment had been\u00a0improperly removed from rent stabilization\u00a0protections.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Diana\u2019s distortion of the facts in this case is a sad attempt to harass our client out of her rent-stabilized apartment, and he will not be successful,\u201d Casey Gilfoil, an attorney with Brooklyn Legal Services, told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

Gilfoil said a judge has already ruled Diana improperly removed the apartment from rent stabilization and said the remaining issue before the court is determining the legal rent and any potential damages.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Legal Services also says the tenant has money set aside in escrow pending the court\u2019s final ruling.<\/p>\n

Diana pushed back, saying the court did not find that he committed fraud and that he followed the guidance he says he received from New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal when the apartment was deregulated years before the tenant sued. \u201cThe judge ruled there was no fraud,\u201d Diana told Fox News Digital. \u201cShe said I incorrectly destabilized the apartment. I did it as they told me to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diana also disputed Brooklyn Legal Services\u2019 claim that the tenant has years of rent saved in escrow, saying the numbers do not add up and that, based on court communications regarding her employment history, it is unlikely she has accumulated \u201canywhere near\u201d $300,000.<\/p>\n

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Diana says the occupant\u2019s lawsuit relied on what he describes as a series of shifting and contradictory claims, including allegations that the original elderly tenant\u00a0was not disabled, that the occupant had been on the lease and that the apartment was illegally deregulated.<\/p>\n

During depositions, Diana said his attorney challenged those claims with emails, photographs, rent records and testimony. He contends the allegations did not withstand scrutiny during questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe got destroyed on all 18 claims,\u201d Diana said. \u201cAnd once those fell apart, they just made up new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court stipulations required the occupant to make monthly use-and-occupancy payments, similar to interim rent payments, of roughly $835 per month at one point, but Diana says those payments stopped years ago. He estimates total unpaid rent now ranges between $275,000 and $325,000.<\/p>\n

In her deposition, the occupant testified she has not worked full time in years and has limited income, a factor Diana says the courts have effectively allowed to justify continued nonpayment.<\/p>\n

Diana, who started a\u00a0GoFundMe page\u00a0to help with his financial struggles, says the prolonged case has left him struggling to maintain his building and cover basic expenses, including tuition for his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne apartment out of eight not paying rent wipes out any profit,\u201d Diana said. \u201cJudges talk in terms of months. They don\u2019t talk about what $300,000 actually does to a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed to an overall problem with the system and described repeated housing court inspections that he says resulted in excessive and duplicative violations, which further delayed proceedings and increased costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll cite you for a paint drip from 20 years ago and call you a slumlord,\u201d Diana said. \u201cMeanwhile, the tenant hasn\u2019t paid rent in nearly a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Diana says his case highlights what he views as a systemic imbalance in New York\u2019s housing courts that allows bad-faith actors to\u00a0exploit tenant protections indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tell you to sell your building. They tell you to accept a buyout, to pay the person who owes you hundreds of thousands of dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not justice. That\u2019s\u00a0legalized theft.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, the case was adjourned again until this summer, essentially guaranteeing that the saga will extend into its 10th year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis court case has become a Twilight Zone Marathon,\u201d Diana said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Court records show the woman moved into the apartment in 2014 after responding to a Craigslist advertisement seeking a live-in companion for the tenant, who later died in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"yoast_head":"\nNYC landlord pleads for help as '9-year-squatter' nightmare costs him hundreds of thousands in unpaid rent, fees - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=983\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYC landlord pleads for help as '9-year-squatter' nightmare costs him hundreds of thousands in unpaid rent, fees - 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